{"id":1450,"date":"2013-04-09T10:29:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T14:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2013-04-08T15:21:16","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T19:21:16","slug":"the-bs-of-interviewing-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/the-bs-of-interviewing-continued\/","title":{"rendered":"The B\u2019s of Interviewing . . . continued"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/the-bs-of-interviewing-continued\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"button_count\"  size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div><p><a href=\"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Interview.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1474\" style=\"margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" alt=\"Interview\" src=\"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Interview-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>The next &#8220;B&#8221; of interviewing is<b>:\u00a0 <\/b><strong>Be prepared<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Being prepared involves several things:\u00a0 knowing the company, knowing your stuff and knowing how to present it.<\/p>\n<p>I always ask candidates what they know about my company and am surprised by the number of times I hear, &#8221; . . . not much . . .\u201d, \u201c. . . nothing, really . . .\u201d, or, worst of all, &#8220;I really haven\u2019t had time to research.\u201d\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 When your cell phone has more computing power than the one used in the Manhattan Project, enough to stay connected to several hundred people simultaneously, the ability to shop or get a dinner reservation at a moment&#8217;s notice and you didn\u2019t have time to research?\u00a0 If you aren\u2019t interested in the company, the employer won\u2019t be interested in you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What should you know to be prepared?<\/strong>\u00a0 You should know:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The history of the company and what the company does.<\/li>\n<li>Their competitors and their competitive advantage (and their weaknesses, for that matter).<\/li>\n<li>How your skills and experiences match the requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Use company contacts, social media, internet research, stock market information and, even the library, as your sources.<\/p>\n<p>Next &#8212; <strong>knowing your stuff<\/strong>.\u00a0 An effective candidate speaks to his resume without looking.\u00a0 You remember the details and can recite them.\u00a0 You know the steps you took to drive sales to record highs in the Atlanta division in 2009.\u00a0 You remember the names of your supervisors, the years you won awards and why you received them.\u00a0\u00a0 In my book, a candidate that gives me different information than what is reported on an application or resume has trouble in the integrity department.\u00a0 Is it fair?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 It is what it is.\u00a0 Knowing your stuff keeps you out of trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Last, you must not only know your stuff, but also know how to present it.\u00a0<strong> Great information and big opportunities have been lost in poor presentations<\/strong>. My advice?\u00a0 Practice.\u00a0 Even well paid, experienced speakers practice constantly.\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Interviewing is something we rarely do.\u00a0 It takes skill to speak to seldom used information in front of total strangers.<\/p>\n<p>My advice on how to get better?\u00a0 Go to the internet and find the 100 most common interview questions.\u00a0 Put them in a word processing document and <i>answer them<\/i>.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve answered them, find someone with which to practice.\u00a0 It could be your spouse, significant other, neighbor or someone else with whom you\u2019re comfortable and, most importantly, will give you <em>honest<\/em> feedback.\u00a0 Have them ask the questions while you practice answering them until your presentation is smooth and natural.<\/p>\n<p>Once you know the company, know your stuff and know how to present your stuff, you will be much more confident.\u00a0 This confidence helps you relax.\u00a0 When you are more relaxed, you are more yourself.\u00a0 Your confidence will show!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next week, we dive into Being Interested . . . are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>-Mark Key is a retail professional known for driving results in diverse and challenging retail segments.\u00a0 Mark&#8217;s interviewing insights come from companies big and small &#8212; having worked with organizations with just a few employees to Fortune 100 companies.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The next &#8220;B&#8221; of interviewing is:\u00a0 Be prepared. Being prepared involves several things:\u00a0 knowing the company, knowing your stuff and knowing how to present it. I always ask candidates what they know about my company and am surprised by the number of times I hear, &#8221; . . . not much . . .\u201d, \u201c. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,98,7],"tags":[9,5,37,10,97],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-tips","category-interviewing-2","category-job-search-focus","tag-accelerate-your-search","tag-focus","tag-interviewing","tag-job-search","tag-mark-key"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}